ROSEN: Halloween can provide a sense of community in neighborhoods

Now that Halloween has passed, I have a few observations about the community in southwest Riverside County where I live. For me, Halloween night is a barometer of how my neighbors are feeling about the safety of our community.

For those parents who allow their kids to go trick-or-treating, I notice a variety of approaches. Some let their kids roam in packs and tell them to be home by 8, 9 or 10 p.m. Others will accompany their children but stay back as the little ones ring the doorbells and shout in unison, “Trick or treat!” Then there are those moms and dads who walk up to the doorway with their kids, make sure the person opening the door is a legitimate citizen and carefully observe what is placed in the plastic jack-o’-lantern receptacles.

The only judgment I would pass would be if parents allow their very small children to roam the streets with no supervision at all – not a great parenting decision. There are enough Grinches of Halloween who still speed in their cars regardless of the little ones crossing dark streets.

If the majority or at least a sizable percentage of parents feel my neighborhood is safe enough for their kids to go door to door, I see it as an affirmation of the belief most neighbors are basically good. It’s not a scientific poll; no factoring out the variables for median ages of homeowners, but a rough, yet I think accurate, reflection of how my block is doing.

Sure, between 8:30 and 10 p.m. I tend to get a smattering of teenagers wearing no costumes who are basically begging for candy. It’s a tad annoying when I see the trouble the little ones went to finding the “perfect” costume and how seriously they take the night. But I don’t lecture, just give out the candy, smile and say, “Be safe.”

My neighborhood goes crazy with decorations for the holidays. Easter has huge inflatable bunnies with baskets and colored eggs. Halloween has eerie lights and spiderwebs forming a gantlet to the front doors. And Christmas is an all-out electric fest with light bulb reindeer bobbing on the lawn and lights of all colors blinking, glowing and making the statement, “Hey, this house thinks it’s great to celebrate and we’ll deal with the $800 electric bill next year.”

The neighborhood where my brother and I grew up went from young families to mostly retirees. Gone are the over-the-top decorations, and instead are the occasional pumpkin or Christmas Santa on the lawn. That’s fine – people get older – but I can’t help but smile when I drive down the street I live on now and see Mom and Dad stringing lights and hanging skeletons. Our communities struggle to keep a sense of neighborhood, and seeing these decorated homes is reinforcement that neighborhood and all it stands for is not dead.

Mitchell Rosen is a licensed therapist with practices in Corona and Temecula.

Join the conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful
conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments,
we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful,
threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent
or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law,
regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.